Donna: If your neighborhood is anything like mine lately, the For Sale signs on the street seem to be growing legs and walking from house to house overnight. This phenomenon can be explained. We are not living in a Disney film where inanimate objects come to life, but the inanimate real estate market has certainly had some life breathed into it here in Utah Valley.

The migrating For Sale sign is just one indicator that our market is hot. According to our real estate experts, the number of days houses are on the market has dropped 59% from last year. Currently the average time on the market is 27 days. Also you may find that if you are looking to buy a house, it will cost you a little more. The prices have gone up for 11 months in a row. In rural areas in the county, some prices have risen as much as $15,000 in a month. However, due to growth, cities like Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain will most likely not be considered for rural housing loans starting in September.

Taylor Oldroyd with the Utah County Association of Realtors said he has been advising Realtors to prepare their clients for a fast process. “A pre-approval letter is not enough. Be prepared to act quickly or be ready to miss out on the house,” he warns. “Multiple offers is the new catch-phrase, replacing short sales and foreclosures.”

On average people move every five to seven years; however, many people have been unable to sell, or unable to buy a new home. There are years worth of first-time homebuyers waiting to take advantage of the low interest rates and get their first home. Others are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and considering selling their house after being recession bound for years.

With all of this great news for sellers, there are many more people who are still working their way out of the personal financial hit they took during the longest recession in U.S. history. These hopeful homeowners might want to sell while the market is high and then make nice with their in-laws with the large basement.

Others may consider refinancing while comparable prices will reflect well. Beware of the appraisal issues in either of these processes. Oldroyd points out that regulations from Washington continue to hamper sales with appraisal issues being the dominant hurdle. There are a plethora of stories about sales falling through because of a bad or low appraisal. With no real appeal process, it takes faith to put the house back on the market. Remember the multiple offers make the appraisal fiascos more endurable.

Val: There is no doubt the market is on the rebound in Utah County and throughout many parts of the country. I have a son living in Mesa, Ariz., one of the hardest-hit real estate areas of the country during the Great Recession. A couple of months ago, he put his house on the market at 8 a.m. and had sold it for full asking price by noon.

Not everyone has that type of luck on the market, but I am hearing more and more success stories of people selling and buying their homes. Most of the realtors I speak with tell me things are starting to heat up in both the residential and commercial markets.

Interest rates remain pretty low, so homes are still relatively affordable, providing buyers can qualify for a loan and meet appraisal tests. That wonderful sight of construction crews pounding away on rooftops of new homes is great news for all of us. The housing market must recover before our country’s economy can fully rebound. So much of our economy relies on a robust construction industry.

Home prices are starting to rise again in the valley. Consider the area of Orem where I live. The average price of a home that sold in the first quarter this year was nearly 24 percent higher than a year ago. Most communities and neighborhoods in Utah Valley experienced a double-digit increase during the same time period.

All projections indicate Utah County will double its population in the next two decades. That will mean new home construction must continue at a fairly robust pace to keep up the pace with the anticipated growth.A couple of weeks ago, I visited four of Utah Valley’s high tech companies in one day. Each of them explained how they were growing at a rapid pace and expected to expand their workforce considerably in the near future. That same scenario is being played out in companies all across Utah Valley. Their growth will mean more demand for housing as employees are hired to help with business expansion.

Now if we can just keep the Feds from messing things up again …

• Vale Hale is president and CEO of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce. Donna Milakovic is the executive vice president of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.

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